Taxi industry to disobey Aarto

THE National Taxi Alliance says it will disobey the roll-out of the Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act should it begin tomorrow.

The Aarto and combined demerit system will penalise drivers and fleet operators guilty of traffic offences or infringements, by imposing demerit points that could lead to suspension or cancellation of licences, professional driving permits or operator cards.

The Aarto Amendment Act was signed into law in 2019. In his budget vote speech, Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula had announced the system would start on July 1.

National Taxi Alliance spokesperson Theo Malele said the Department of Transport had been quiet about the act and the issues with the demerit system. He said the taxi industry would not comply with the new law.

Malele said the industry had no resources to co-operate with the system, that would require them to vet its drivers.

He said the system was a disaster for taxi owners who could lose their licences should their drivers receive demerits for offences on the road.

“We will not recognise the system because there are shortfalls, RTMC (Road Traffic Management Corporation) was supposed to conduct a workshop but they will shield themselves with the Covid-19 pandemic. Why couldn’t they delay if they want to blame Covid-19?” Malele asked.

Head of accountability at the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse, Stephanie Fick, threw its support behind the taxi industry, saying the Aarto law was signed by the president, but the date of commencement had not been gazetted. She said the taxi industry would be well within its rights not to comply with the system should it begin on July 1.

“They must gazette this date before they can roll out Aarto. If they roll it out without it being gazetted then the roll-out is unlawful. In other words, I agree that there is no way that the taxi industry can be held accountable.”

Fick said she believed the reason President Cyril Ramaphosa had not gazetted the act was because the government was not ready to implement the kind of system that would normally work well in a developed country.

She said the Department of Transport had made many questionable decisions, including the implementation of the e-tolling system which has also been problematic.

She said government should go back to basics and consider just getting more traffic officers, instead of implementing systems that were bound to fail.

The RTMC referred all queries regarding Aarto to the Road Traffic Infringement Agency.

The Department of Transport was not available for comment.